Finding Poetry
By John Herlihy

No poetry can light your eyes
Or bring about your demise.
No poetry can brighten shadow
Or darken the sun-lit meadow.
No poetry can give sound to silence
Or silence what is given tonal license.
No poetry can cool life’s scorching fire
Or restrain the pulse of human desire.
No poetry can prevent snow from falling
Or stop the glacier from slowly crawling.
No poetry can halt a moving river
Or impede its flow into the sea with a shiver.
No poetry can move a mountain
Or halt faith’s bursting as a fountain.
No poetry can prevent a wave dying on the shore
Or hinder us from opening the sun door.
No poetry can stop the arrival of tomorrow
Or prevent the day’s passing into yesterday.
No poetry can steal what you already know
Or prevent the moon from shedding its glow.

Poetry lies in the trembling of a leaf
And in the trembling of a person’s grief.
Poetry lies in the whisper of your breath
And in the bravery of a noble death.
Poetry lies in the velvet of your touch
And in the strokes of your paint brush.
Poetry lies in the color of your eyes
And in the infinity of open skies.
Poetry lies in the moss of the old mill
And in the sparrow on my window sill.
Poetry lies in the wings of a butterfly
And in the wings of a hummingbird.
Poetry lies in the rhythms of the drum
And in the brightness of the sun.
Poetry lies in the mystery of the hour
And in the beauty of the flower.
Poetry lies in the eerie quality of fog
And in the frog’s burping in the bog.
Poetry lies in the gentleness of a breeze
And in the descent of twilight with ease.